Now, after looking at what we have briefly noted with 7 sayings of our Lord on the Cross, all the prophecies that we saw and as with many of the mystery doctrines we will continue to see these prophecies as we move along and we will continue to see how helpful they truly are with our spiritual walk.
With perception, metabolization and application of bible doctrine our goal is to be prepared ambassadors of our Lord and represent Him in our daily lives.
As we are serious students of the word of God, we know the importance of repetition, and these studies do require quite a bit of repetition.
This is how we learn to defend the reason for the hope that lies within us so that we can identify ourselves as Christian soldiers and represent our Lord with all of hearts and all of our strength and all of our minds and we actually have the privilege of doing this in union – together with one another as well as our Lord.
It’s so easy to fall into the temptations of the kod in our daily lives and that is why we gather together – whether here physically or in our virtual chatrooms – the point is that we are hearing what the Spirit has to say to the churches…
Now with all this repetition we are now ready for our next study concerning how our Lord used the sword of the Spirit as manifested in the Doctrine Of The Substitutionary Spiritual Death Of Jesus Christ.
The idea here is to become very familiar with the many terms and principles of the Christian Soldier and the art of war so that we can have even deeper understanding of these important principles…
So we are continuing to learn how to defend our Lord Jesus Christ as the One truly awaited Messiah with those 29 prophecies.
We have given you a mathematical equation that no worldly person could deny – and we used only 20 prophesies to prove that probability of 1000000000000000 – it was 10 followed by 175 zeros, so whatever you want to call that number – I have no idea what to call it – I just say 100 trillion badillion gazillion… the point being that we have shown you how to prove that as such.
Once we have become born again and saved and we understand the importance of living the spiritual life and we desire to take advantage of our relationship with God… we often ask ourselves or we may even get asked that question – what is best avenue for the new believer…?
Your saved what now? right…
Our pastor suggest that any new believer should – learn the basic principles of the 10 PSD – lean on FRD and gain an understanding of principles like rebound and grace, and letting go of any guilt – (something we all probably have a hard time grasping) letting go of things in the past and learn that recovery process so that we can then represent and share what we believe and KNOW to be the most important principles of life and more importantly how to apply them.
Remember – as instructed by our PT we took a break from our rapture study because he wanted for us to note some of the following subjects, and we made a list of them for you:
29 Prophecies of Jesus Christ being the Messiah.
I AM statements of our Lord.
7 sayings of our Lord on the Cross. (as they peaked out of our prophesies)
The Trichotomous Separation.
The Victorious Proclamation.
And these are some of the studies that we mentioned that we have to look forward to noting in preparation for the Christian Soldier Prep study: (I love that word prep)
The Doctrine Of The Substitutionary Spiritual Death Of Jesus Christ.
The difference between reparation and restoration
The deceitfulness of faithlessness
The New Testament analogy of the Old Testament Fish Gate
(we may even note some principles from:)
Nehemiah
Hosea (Hosea can you see)
Christian soldier & The Art of War
This is the plan that our Pastor has guided for us to review and Friday evening we began to note our subject of:
The Doctrine Of The Substitutionary Spiritual Death Of Jesus Christ.
First of all, what is meant by the word Substitutionary, or more than that – what is the Substitutionary Spiritual Death of our Lord Jesus Christ all about?
Let’s begin with a definition and remember as we are using the definition, The word “Substitutionary” refers to a person, namely our Lord Jesus Christ, acting or serving in place of another.
He was what? He was our Substitute.
So when we look at the word substitutionary death – we are referring to what He did for us as a member of the royal family.
And remember we have a phrase in the bible and this is that phrase in the word of God called “for us.”
Don’t ever forget the principle of what He has done for you and for me… “for us”.
That’s what the word substitutionary is all about.
For example, notice in ROM 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for (for what? For us) us.
Not when we were good, not when we repented but while we were yet sinners – Christ died for us.
If your in the book of Romans – Look at ROM 8:32 and never get familiar with what He has done for us ROM 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
He delivered Him up for us.
God the Father delivered up His son Jesus Christ for you for me or as we have said for us…
GAL 3:13 puts it like this GAL 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, (He took us away from that curse we were all under a curse because none of us could fulfill the law as commanded in the bible, HOW? How did He do that?) having become a curse for us for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”
EPH 5:2 puts it like this: EPH 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us,(there it is again for us) an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Then we have 2 more passages; TIT 2:14 who gave Himself for us, (always for us God has done things and yet we have a difficult time doing things for Him ) that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession,(we belong to God that’s what the bible says) zealous for good deeds. (works)
And then we have the very familiar verse in 1JO 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; (again, everything for us) and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
After some deep considerations we have decided to communicate this doctrine point by point to you.
and I have to add my dad’s sense of humor here – he says in spite of the fact there are some what he calls: SMC’s out there who mock and try to correct what we learn and how we learn and even how we teach when we go point by point.
What are SMC’s you may ask… at first I thought they were ‘Simplistic Minded Christians” however my dad’s term for SMC’s – are: Simplistic Moronic Critics”.
In either case there are plenty of SMC’s around these days.
These SMC’s that we are referring to mock how my dad uses points to teach, Point 1, Point 2, Point 3, and that’s usually because they can’t go beyond Point 3 because they are not sure what the next point is…..after 3 comes 4, 5, 6, … they can’t seem to get past number 3 and that is because they are SMC’s…
Now I only use this phrase in a loving teasing kind of way, these are just simple minded people, believers and unbelievers and they don’t understand the principles of GRACE!
I say all of that because I don’t know how people can be so petty and mock things in the word of God like that when in reality, we are to be grateful that we are alive and we are to be thankful – according to the apostle Paul that even if Christ is being preached for the wrong motivation we are to rejoice…
So please accept our apologies if we get you lost concerning what comes after point 3,….
Which would be point 5, I think… haha just kidding, laughter is good medicine for the heart says the word of God.
As PRO 17:22 says A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
We know God has a sense of humor because all we have to do is look in the mirror and at our own personal lives and we will see God’s humor all around us.
When we can laugh and enjoy life and not get all hung up on Point 1 – Point 2 … or whose doing this or saying that causing a broken spirit or drying up bones – and we can look in the mirror and say thank you God for taking a fool like me and changing this mind – metanoia then we will learn how to enjoy life and recognize principles like:
the biblical answer found in passages such as PRO 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
People who are fools don’t like wisdom and they don’t like instruction because it challenges our intellect and many times they have not been challenged because they do not take in BD daily …
So then we have to come to the conclusion that we are not as great as we think we are in ourselves – in our own thinking, our own ways…
– but when you allow your thinking to be changed by the word of God – you will then challenge yourself using the mind of Christ, rather than entertaining yourselves with the dog and pony show…
and now you become a “methates” – a disciple of God’s word a serious student of the word of God and you then understand Point 4,5,6…
I love how the Lord also puts it – He says in: PRO 1:22 “How long, O naive ones,(those who mock BD) will you love simplicity? (not the simplicity of the WOG but the simplicity of not going forward in the PPOG with the truth of the WOG – how long will scoffers: ) And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, And fools hate (do what?– hate knowledge) knowledge?
And then this last verse – we can understand why PRO 26:45 says, PRO 26:4 “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.”
And then in verse 5 it says PRO 26:5 Answer a fool as his folly {deserves}, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
And that seems to be a contradiction – doesn’t it? Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him and then it says, again after that, Answer a fool as his folly {deserves},
there is a difference here –
This passage is saying:
Don’t become like the fool and don’t become familiar with Bible Doctrine.
Don’t become like the fool – but sometimes you mock the fools folly – so that maybe the fool will wake up and realize that the most important thing to do in life is that when we gather together – as the people of God and enjoy studying the word of God, as we have been and continue to do so, we never get familiar with BD because that’s the truth that sets us free.
That’s what Passover was all about, that’s what the Lord’s supper is all about and that’s what the 4th of July celebrations are all truly about – truth that sets us free.
So let us begin with our 1st point of truth: Point 1. Deals with the Categories of Spiritual Death.
We are going to begin with the book of Psalms 51.
Notice this point deals with “categories” plural and that is because there are basically Two categories of spiritual death.
There are basically two categories of spiritual death that do exist.
Number 1: simply deals with a. Real spiritual death, which is separation from God in a state of sin which applies to (every member of the human race) all mankind with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We were all born physically alive but spiritually dead.
All of us need to understand real spiritual death and how it applies to us… – how it applies to all mankind with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of us must remember that we were all born in sin, we were not born perfect and then we committed a sin and became condemned a sinner.
We were all born in sin without us doing anything to earn or deserve it.
All I can say is that according to the bible we were all born in sin without us doing anything to deserve it …
and we know that because of passages like PSA 55:1 which we will see soon after I give you the 2nd category of spiritual death:
Which is what we call b. Substitutionary spiritual death, which is separation from God in a state of perfection and impeccability. This applies only to our Lord Jesus Christ.
So the first spiritual death (real spiritual death RSD ) refers to all of us, all mankind with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ – when we are born we enter into real spiritual death.
The 2nd category of spiritual death refers to Substitutionary spiritual death (SSD) – it is separation from God being in a state of perfection and impeccability and it applies to only One person the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are two deaths in opposite states – RSD – is in a state of sin and SSD – is in a state of perfection … and what we are going to see is how these two relate to us.
All of us need to understand Real Spiritual Death and how it applies to all mankind with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And according to the Bible all I can say is that we were all born in sin without us doing anything to deserve it.
I want to present you with two questions this morning and ask you to keep in mind these two principles during this study:
- Did Adam have an earthly father? No
- Did Jesus have an earthly father? – No
The first Adam and the last Adam.
This is what they had in common Eve included and including Eve proves more to our point that we are going to see and many of us already know which is the principle that: the male passes on the OSN.
They did not have an earthly father, Adam and Eve were created and Eve was created from the rib of Adam before he was spiritually dead because as we have already noted –Adam became spiritually dead the moment he sinned in the garden but we are talking about the principle of the 1st and the last Adam…
So Adam was not born at all – Adam was created in the image or the likeness of God: GEN 1:27 “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Notice they were created in the image of God – spiritually alive.
And Jesus Christ was born of a virgin… this is the importance of the virgin birth – as we noted Friday evening.
If you were not here Friday evening I strongly suggest you take some time to listen to that message because this is such a serious subject and trust me when I say – you want to be prepared with this kind of ammo the next opportunity that you have to plant the seed and bring someone to Christ.
because if you don’t understand and you cannot explain what it means to be born again – than you do not understand the first thing about being a Christian soldier…
we have to take our calling serious – and we have to be open to opportunities and we have to be very careful not to be that stumbling block to our fellow believer.
So – we need to understand and be able to communicate principles such as: Because of one man’s sin (Adam) we were all born in sin without us doing anything to deserve it.
We know this because PSA 51:5 says Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, (notice he was brought forth from the womb) And in sin my mother conceived me.
Then after Adam sinned in the garden of Eden – notice what it says about Adam and btw remember Who’s image Adam was created in – in the image of God and then we read in
GEN 5:3 (it says) When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, (we know he lived longer than that – he was over 900 years old when he died – so this was 130 yrs after Adam was created not after he was born, so remember Adam was created and not born ) he became the father of a son (and what’s the next four words?)in his own likeness, according to his image,
Notice in his own likeness, according to his image, and what is so important about that is that – “in his own likeness” refers to being born physically alive (– again – physically alive) but this time spiritually dead.
When Adam was created – he was created both physically alive and spiritually alive but after he sinned in the garden he became spiritually dead – (sin caused him to be spiritually dead) and with this sin what he did is he brought in spiritual death to the entire human race.
And there we have it: the lineage of being born spiritually dead through the first Adam…
That’s the lineage of real spiritual death.
Now – remember real spiritual death does not apply to the Lord Jesus Christ because it is different state of separation b. Substitutionary spiritual death, which is separation from God in a state of perfection and impeccability. This applies only to our Lord Jesus Christ.
He did not die a real spiritual death in the sense of Him being guilty He was never guilty – He was always innocent.
People have a hard time understanding this – some even teach that Jesus Christ became a sinner on the cross and that’s why He died for us – No, that’s not true.
He died as a sin offering – He did not become a sinner – He was never guilty.
Real spiritual death belongs to every single one of us for one reason – not because you sin – not because I sin – but because of the fact that we were all born “in sin”.
For all of us were born in sin without us doing anything to deserve it.
Before you made your first decision to sin, God actually already condemned you as a sinner and as we have studied many times – that may seem to be unfair to you
but that was the wisdom of God doing something fantastic
because If He could condemn you and I for one man’s sin – (that’s Adam) – then that means that – He could follow His justice and make you righteous because of One Man’s righteousness, of course that’s a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ…
The sin of Adam was corrected or canceled out by the righteousness of Christ… making it possible for us to become His righteous children.
We know this because David puts it like this in PSA 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth (notice he was brought forth he came from the womb) in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
The Amplified Bible has a good translation – put like this PSA 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful]. (and then we also saw this in John 3:6; ROM 5:12; Eph 2:3) [John 3:6; ROM 5:12; Eph 2:3.]
So I want to ask you a question – and that is How did you become a sinner?
Did you become a sinner when you sinned? No
Did you become a sinner when you were born? Yes
You became a sinner when you were born, you and I were born really spiritually dead.
You were born physically alive however you were born spiritually dead.
That’s why you have to have a second birth.
That second birth is you must be born again.
And now this morning we’re going to see the man who actually said do I go back in my mother’s womb and come back and be born a second time…
And that was said by a socalled religious person who thought he understood the doctrines of the word of God but like most religious people he was totally ignorant of what the truth was all about.
In fact that’s when the Lord Jesus Christ had to answer that man Nicodemus in JOH 3:6 He said to Nicodemus:
JOH 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh (that which is born human is human) and that which is born of the Spirit is (what?)spirit.”
It’s the spiritual birth that we need to have in our lives.
If we’re going to live with God forever we have to be born again because we are born spiritually dead.
And we become spiritually alive by simply doing one thing by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and then come all the benefits that God has given us to enjoy without doing one thing for our salvation…
– all we have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved you shall be born again – that is spiritually born. Just look to Christ – just recognize Him for Who He is and What He has done for us all!
We have a real spiritual death and we have a real spiritual birth.
And just like we didn’t do one thing to deserve our condemnation – the same principle applies to salvation and we don’t have to do anything to earn our salvation – which is why it is simply called a “gift” from God.
God tells us this very thing in ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death (spiritual death) through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned when Adam sinned.
People don’t like to hear this stuff…
People don’t like to hear that When Adam sinned he was representing you and representing me – without even taking our free will into accountability.
Let me ask you this:
Would you rather be born perfect and have to keep yourself in a perfect state of perfection and never sin?
Or would you rather be born as a sinner and all you have to do is believe and trust in Someone else who is righteous and then have perfect righteousness forever and ever because of what God did for you in that gift?
So what appeared to be condemnation, remember we just saw how God saves the best for last, and something that seemed to be unfair actually turned into the greatest blessing of all when God said – I’m going to save those who are condemned because Condemnation must precede salvation, condemnation must come before salvation.
Before we need a savior – we have to be condemned.
So God says I’m going to qualify you to need a savior – How? Because I’m going to condemn you, not because of anything that you have done but because of another man’s sin –
and He did so in His perfectly just & righteous plan to defeat that serpent in the garden who thought that he won the entire human race when he got Adam and the woman to turn on God
and little did he know that there was a plan that God had that was going to take the curse of sin and turn it into a blessing!!!
What Satan meant for evil God meant it for good.
These are the principles that make life very meaningful and enjoyable because we don’t have to worry and live in fear of what we have to do to keep ourselves saved.
So God made it so that we did nothing to get saved – there is nothing we have to do to keep ourselves saved – Salvation is of the Lord Jonah said in Jonah 2:8 and we are saved by His divine power.
And in His divine power He reached out and He put a seed inside of us that’s called a perfect seed – the gift of regeneration (as my son Samuel added when we were studying this – I literally have to type retype out much of these messages for us and one of the blessings of that is my children have to hear these things over and over again as I stop type.. stop type.. stop type.. stop type.. over and over
and now my children know that we are new creatures in Christ because of this thing called – not just regeneration but “the doctrine of regeneration”!!!!
I suggest if you want to do some studying – do it with your children, do it with your family!!!
Things will click, it may take time but trust in God that what He says is true and when He says: PRO 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he grows older he will not abandon it.
God is not a liar I am living proof of that today – trust me my life is the way it is because I was brought up sitting in bible class, not understanding it all … dreading it because if I wasn’t paying attention – my dad had certainly made it known.. and guess what dad – I have the mic now … hahaha that’s a joke – laughter is good medicine but honestly and then one day – it all clicks and now it is I who no longer lives but Christ who lives in me, GAL 2:20!!!
And I know many of us know these principles but do we know how to explain them to others?
All of these passages that we are noting are related to what we call spiritual death.
We were all made physically alive but born spiritual dead.
This is what JOH 3 teaches.
And again: If we are ever going to understand why our Lord had to die a spiritual death upon the cross, which means separated from God, then we need to understand what spiritual death means to us.
What is spiritual death? Spiritual death is being separated from God.
Will you ever become spiritual dead? NEVER, because Someone died in your place that spiritual death.
Will unbelievers be spiritual dead ? YES because of that ONE sin – the sin of unbelief!
It’s very sad that there are people right now in this place called torments or this place called hell all because of that sin of unbelief –
because of the fact that they would not humble themselves and see their need for a Savior and they would not believe on the One who died for them… but they don’t want to be spiritually alive and that is their freedom of volition and we know that God in His grace has made it possible for them to believe but they chose not to do so.
Arrogance always gets in our way, doesn’t it?
There is a verse in Habakkuk –( I think it is either Habakkuk 1:3 or 2:5) and it talks about arrogance and it says “the arrogance of our heart makes us stupid” and the dumbest decisions that I (maybe I could say WE) have made in my own life were based upon arrogance… arrogance always gets us in trouble because arrogance takes us away from truth and only truth can actually set us free.
So, this is the story behind that famous passage in JOH 3 which teaches that you must be born again, you must have that spiritual birth.
We read in JOH 3:1Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, (and notice – he was a man of the Pharisees and he was a ruler of the Jews) a ruler of the Jews;
He was a very devout and religious man.
Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin which was the ruling body of the Jews.
(And as many know) The Sanhedrin was comprised of Scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees.
Here was a man who was top in his class, he wasn’t just some average person sitting in the pew, he was a leader in his day.
So we know that the Sanhedrin was comprised of Scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees but who were they and what do these roles actually mean?:
First we have The Scribes were the guardians and the scholars of the Old Testament Scriptures.
And then we have The Sadducees were the highly educated rationalists who denied the supernatural, such as the resurrection and eternal life.
They didn’t believe in the resurrection and eternal life but they were religious people.
And then The Pharisees were very religious and filled with legalism. And our friend Nicodemus was a Pharisee.
Now, here is a man who is still spiritually dead,
here is a man who is not born again,
here’s a man who doesn’t have what you and I have today – Nicodemus doesn’t have the spirit of God inside of him but I want to describe this man’s daily schedule to you:
The Pharisees prayed seven times a day.
(Not only that)
They went to the temple three times a day.
(And) They worked overtime at being good and doing good.
However, what does the Bible say about being good??? what does the Bible say about the righteousness of man???
What does the bible say about those who are spiritually dead but perform great moral acts, do great deeds, impress people by their goodness…
The bible says our works are like this: ISA 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a (a menstrual rag the bible actually says) filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, (and they) take us away.
Now this was the description of a man who was religious but a man who had a problem – a problem that most of us here do not have but the majority of the world has this problem… even though he looked good on the outside – he was really spiritually dead.
On the outside the bible says he was filled with dead man’s bones,
you and I are not filled with dead man’s bones …
when God looks at us He sees a perfect creature, He sees us as He sees His only begotten Son.
He sees you as a child of God that is perfect in His sight, who can never ever change our standard with Him –
no matter how much we do or how much we fail – it doesn’t cause Him to have one negative attitude toward us!
Because let me remind you of something: He is NOT just your God, He is your Father! That’s grace!
We are spiritually alive because of the grace of God!
The Pharisees gave money to the poor.
They prayed the longest and performed sacred rituals in a manner that attracted a lot of attention.
They always wanted attention.
When there were functions in the Temple, they were first in line shouting the loudest.
The Pharisees literally believed that they were making an impression on God.
And Nicodemus was a typical Pharisee.
He was a good man, but good people don’t go to heaven … right?
No one goes to heaven because they are good, the only ones who go to heaven are those who solve the problem of spiritual death and that was solved for them – when our Lord went to the cross and died a real spiritual death.
Meaning He was separated from God the Father, and we will never know what that was like because first of all – we could never even comprehend it but more importantly we will never have to experience it He died for you and for me for all of US! He was our substitute.
I wonder how many typical Pharisees, and by that I mean male and females, are around today?
Pharisees who are like Nicodemus who was fatheaded, religious, selfrighteous, proud, and vain.
He was one of those who our Lord described in Matthew 23:27.
Because a lot of us get impressed on what we see on the outside here our Lord actually gives a WOE to them and tells them what their problem is:
He said to them – the religious selfrighteous crowd and He does this (Woe) a lot He said: MAT 23:27 “Woe (Beware – He’s trying to stop them like you stop a horse – WHOOOE) to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (you critics – like we mentioned in the beginning) For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, (a lot of people try to appear beautiful on the outside) but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
Inside that’s what they appear to be like – outside they appear to be beautiful or attractive, inside they are full of dead man’s bones.
Now, One of the requirements of becoming a Pharisee was outward physical perfection. and the dumb thing was that they actually thought they could reach a state of outward physical perfection.
My dad often mentions the pastor who said he stopped sinning for 17 years… which is totally ridiculous because that right there was a sin…
I think we can all agree that no one can stop sinning for even a day or let’s just say a few days… never mind 17 years unless they are in a coma, maybe…
My point is these people actually think they can reach that point, and they are still around today, people who don’t know what spiritual death is all about.
The Pharisee or the selfrighteous religious person is very difficult to impress with truth, bible doctrine.
They don’t want grace, the message of grace, you know why? because grace doesn’t give them credit, works does.
They are not impressed with doctrine because doctrine exposes their phoniness.
Doctrine exposed their lies and who they really are, doctrine exposes their sick head and deceitful heart and doctrine brings the light upon them.
Never forget we are all naked in the eyes of God and He see’s everything.
We can lie to people and give the impression to people and people always do it but it’s only an amount of time before the lies get exposed because you can’t fool God.
The bible says be not deceived – God is not mocked… and in the end the only one they are deceiving are themselves.
Whatever a man sows, this he shall also reap.
And in due time we all reap, the fools are those who that that they don’t, the wise are those that recognize that they can and they have and they are not going to try to do it again.
Those are the people who understand that they are no longer spiritually dead, they are now spiritually alive and being spiritually alive means that you have life, you have purpose – it means that you have a plan that God designed that your living in and your enjoying, you have a personal sense of destiny, your excited about life, you appreciate life, and you show gratitude and thankfulness and grace…
The fact of the matter is When we have truth that sets us free – we experience that freedom in our lives from the inside and then we represent that freedom on the outside as well. You just know when someone is for Christ – its almost like when a woman is pregnant – there is a glow to the Christian soldier that is walking in the plan of God…
Unfortunately many religious people are blinded by their own good deeds.
They don’t understand what God’s word says about their good deeds.
The religious person has no concept of the doctrine of total depravity.
Total depravity means that we are all totally depraved without Him, we are totally corrupt, wicked and perverted without God.
It’s only the moment that we solve our problem of spiritual death when we get away from that total depravity and now we become someone in the eyes Who count and that’s God.
They don’t understand this truth, they just believe depravity relates to those in the gutter… the prostitute, the drug addict, the alcoholic, those in bondage or in prison… NO
the depraved people are right now in church, maybe not this church but they are the same people who do the same mundane things and they try to be good to get to heaven so they think that going to church is a good thing, and that’s what’s going to get them to heaven…
Going to church is a good thing, when you are no longer spiritually dead…
Churches are filled with depraved people, depraved people need to be born again and saved and enter into real spiritual life rather than stay in those mundane rituals that do absolutely nothing to glorify God and everything to glorify satan.
However, I want to tell you something The sins of religious people are much worse than the sins of those in the gutter.
For their sins are described and categorized by PRO 6:1619; we don’t have time to get into them now but:
These are the seven sins God mentions that are His top seven worse sins.
There’s: 1. Arrogance, (then He says the 2nd one, and here is a depraved person) 2. A lying tongue, (have you ever met a liar? Its one of the worst type of individuals to be around, you cant trust a thing they say) 3. (overt) murder, 4. hearts that devise evil plans against others, (how can I get even, revenge – how can I get back at them – God says that’s a depraved person) 5. (then there’s:) promoters of evil (they want to promote evil and destroy people’s lives and ministries and destroy peoples families and relationships and marriages) 6. false witnesses (they are liars), and most of all 7. those who spread strife among brothers. hmmm… and that’s the seventh one that God says that’s the abomination one.
Those who spread strife among the royal family… hmmm that’s a real serious one there…
Those are the ones that commit murder every day because if they don’t love their fellow believer 1 John 3:14 & 15 tells us if we don’t love our fellow believer – we are what? We are murderers –
and people may not murder in the natural realm but everyday people are murdering in the spiritual realm because they are involved with arrogance, selfishness, and religious evil.
These descriptions are so serious that the Bible calls them murderers like I just said in
1JO 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. He can still be saved but life is not abiding them because they are not in fellowship with God.
They are called attackers of the Lord Jesus Christ in MAT 25:40 to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
And these are people who are religious people – and they are sick because they are spiritually dead or living in spiritual death and They are said to be mentally disturbed, physically sick, and some have even died, because of not considering the body of Christ correctly, (says) 1CO 11:29.
The point being is that the sin of pride is the number one sin found in the religious person who thinks they can impress God with their claim to be holier than others.
And you know how they did it? These are the individuals that we have to be very careful about because they can destroy lives.
They do it by playing the good ole fashion blame game…
and how do you blame someone how do you justify your own selfish actions?
Job 40:8 tells us how Job tried to do it because Job was actually questioning God because things weren’t going right in Job’s life so rather than trusting in God and taking in His word and claiming His promises Job wanted someone to blame and God said it like this to him in Job 40:8 “Will you really annul My judgment?(God made a judgement on Job and what he had gone through – and then He said:) Will you condemn Me that you may be (what?) justified?
That’s what a lot of individuals do, the religious person will condemn you to be justified.
Or as it is put in the MESSAGE BIBLE TRANSLATION Job 40:8 “Do you presume to tell me what I’m doing wrong? Are you calling me a sinner so you can be a saint?
That sounds a lot like: judge not lest you be judged.
In The Amplified Bible Job 40:8 Will you also annul (set aside and render void) My judgment? Will you condemn Me [your God], that you may [appear] righteous and justified?
And then finally in the NIV Job 40:8 “Will you discredit My justice and condemn Me just to prove you are right?”
Now, you know people like that – and so do we.
And the reason why they put you down is because they want to appear more righteous than others, and that’s their lifestyle.
They are living in real spiritual death, even if they are already born again and saved they can be living a life of spiritual death without having that fellowship with God.
We know when someone is living in spiritual death by the way they live their lives, they will malign and they will want to appear righteous and better than others…
How do you know when you’re not living in spiritual death? – Well –aside from glowing like a pregnant lady – which I’m pretty good at doing lol…
You will know: When your living by the grace of God and you believe the best and you don’t gossip you don’t judge people and put them down,
you don’t malign,
you learn to live for others,
you lay down your life for others,
you look at the church and the royal family and you say that we are here for one another –
because we are the body of Christ we are members of one another – and you better get over the fact that we need each other…
He is the head and we are His body and they eye cannot say to ear I have no need of thee, we all have need of each other –
but when you are living in spiritual death and you are born again and saved – they are like cancer to the body of Christ… all they do is hurt the body of Christ and the least you have done to the brethren, the body, you have done it unto Him…
This is where we will close.
Back in JOH 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
JOH 3:2 this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Now Nicodemus was a very important person according to human standards.
And, although his life was filled with good deeds and he was trying to earn his way into heaven, he did have some concern that he needed help.
Many have speculated why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night because of the fact that he didn’t want the other Pharisees to see him doing so.
Some say, he was embarrassed, and others say he was so busy in doing good deeds in the day time that he simply did not have the time until night.
However, we do know that even though he (Nicodemus) was not born again, he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God his mistake was he said “as a teacher” because He came from God as the Son of God for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Notice, his comment, “we know.”
This reveals that Nicodemus was tremendously impressed with the knowledge of the Pharisees – “We Pharisees know”… big deal Jesus could say…
Whether he had heard of the miracles or witnessed them personally, he was more fascinated and attracted by the deeds of Jesus than by His words.
Remember that the true purpose of miracles was to gain focus and attention on the message.
Jesus did not heal everyone in the world,
He was not interested in the temporal safety of people.
He was and is interested in the eternal safety of the soul more than the physical healing of the body.
He was Not focused on the physical healing of the body but the spiritual healing, and that’s why when you find people that use that verse in ISA 53 – by His stripes we are healed and they will say that if your sick physically that’s because you don’t have enough faith… NO by His stripes we are healed in the spiritual realm, the eternal realm because every one of us die physically eventually…
We are getting closer to death every day.
By His stripes we are healed spiritually and we will only understand that once we understand what Jesus went through on the cross so that we can have that spiritual healing as our SUBSTITUTE.
In verse 2, notice Nicodemus recognized that Jesus was a teacher come from God for He admitted, when he did say, “No man can do these miracles that you do except God be with Him.”
But Here is where Nicodemus, the religious person missed the whole point, a teacher from God teaches and communicates. He was too impressed with the miracles.
Do you know where the true miracle takes place in our lives???
The true miracle takes place in the heart of those who respond to the message.
Show me a marriage that is now reconciled together because of the fact that they both followed Jesus Christ and you are looking at a divine miracle,
show me the drug addict who surrendered their life unto God and that is a miracle.
It is a lot more difficult for God to heal a marriage than it is for God to part the entire red sea to part the red sea requires no volition on the part of the sea…
But to heal a marriage requires two people using the freedom found in the word of God the truth that sets them free believing it and doing it for Christ sake!
And because of the love that they have for the Lord Jesus Christ and the love that they have inevitably have for one another if they remain in the plan of God – that is a true miracle.
The true miracle takes place in the hearts of those who respond to the message.
And that is why Jesus in His earthly ministry used miracles to gain focus to His message…
Now, Nicodemus is confused and so the Lord interrupts him in verse 3.
JOH 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly,(point of doctrine says the Greek, so listen up) I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The interruption was well timed,
Nicodemus was a typical Pharisee, longwinded and boring……sought of like a typical pastor.
However, the Lord Jesus Christ comes right to the point.
He pulled no punches.
He said “You will never get into the kingdom of God unless you are born again.”
Remember He is talking to a man who is very proud of all his merit badges and yet Jesus insults him by saying this.
This is quite a shock to the religious person who thinks they have been so good.
Quite a shock to the proud and arrogant but we should not be shocked because as the bible teaches us:
GAL 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
1CO 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise.
1CO 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
And then finally ROM 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Nicodemus did not understand his real problem.
And if we don’t stick with the plan of God, we too will fall right back into this same vomit again and the dog does return to the vomit.
We could be born again and saved on our way to heaven but still living in spiritual death in time.
And if your that person I want to gently remind you – that you are that dog and you can get out of that vomit and all you have to do is rebound and recover move forward in God’s plan and recognize the fact that we are what – we are by the grace of God and recognize that we are to live for Him, for me to live is Christ and to die is profit.
– it is my humble honor and privilege to be here with you fighting the good fight of faith and learning to live for Him together in union as the body of Christ.
Thank you Royal Family!
